Friday, 23 July 2010

Day 64 Burlington to Cody

It was quite funny last night as we saw a group of lads walking their sheep and also out of the entire park we chose exactly the best spot to pitch the tent as when we were laying inside we suddenly heard the sprinklers start pretty much everywhere except where we were! I would like to say different but I’m afraid it was better luck than judgement! After a windy night we just about managed to drag ourselves out of the tent and on the bikes for 6am at sunrise.

We had to head just 4miles north than 33 miles West today into Cody. As we did the 4 miles North we were facing a very nasty looking black rain cloud and we cycled as fast as possible to get to the junction where we could turn West into the nice bright blue sky and hope that the nasty cloud would stay behind us.

As we clocked up the miles the sky looked so huge as there was nothing around us except flat plains. However, we did manage to see a dead rattle snake, a live grass snake, a big horn deer that was sprinting alongside us for a fair distance and the cherry on the cake was a load of wild horses or mustangs frolicking in the grasses which was awesome to see.

With only one short stop to regain feeling in our bums we made it to ‘Cody is Rodeo’ which is the town at the base of Yellowstone National Park and was made famous by Buffalo Bill Cody who took the Wild West Show to Europe. We headed straight for the Chamber of Commerce where we met Kathy who is also a Rotarian. We had noticed on the way into town that their Rotary meeting was today at noon and after a short chat with Kathy she had invited us to stay at her home for a couple of nights to recuperate and plan our Yellowstone visit.

We went to an outfitters to purchase Bear Spray for protection when riding through the park and grabbed some pancakes for breakfast then met Kathy and her husband Howard at the Rotary meeting for lunch. Kris did another short great speech and we were donated $25 from some of the members, thank you! We popped to the cycle shop and had to purchase another new tyre for Kris as his front tyre was showing warning spots this time and we are unsure of when we will come across another town let alone another bike shop!

We met up with Kathy again who took us over to the Buffalo Bill Historical Centre and we spent the next couple of hours wandering around the 5 separate museums, the firearms, Western Art, Buffalo Bill, Plains Indians and Natural History. All of which were very interesting and interactive. We then grabbed some delicious ice cream and watched the staged Gun Fight in the street that was horribly bad acting and had a quick nose in the Irma Hotel which is was built by Cody and named after his daughter. There was a cherry wood bar in there given to him by Queen Victoria as reward for his travelling show to England. Kathy then drove us out to the nightly rodeo where cowboys from all over USA come to compete and gain rankings to tour Nationally and so the standard was great. We were not really sure what to expect but it was fantastic and we could not keep our eyes of it and got really involved with the rowdy crowd. Cody is very patriotic and there was the National Anthem and time to commemorate the soldiers which is a common theme.

There where cowboys riding Mustangs and Bulls one handed and it was very vicious. There was one guy who got flung off the bull and it stamped on his chest and he was practically carried off the arena. There was a 5yr old girl that won the under 12 barrel racing and the way she was controlling that horse and flying around the barrels was jaw dropping as it really should not have even been possible let alone her winning! At one point all the children under 12 in the crowd were invited into the arena where they let loose 3 calves with red ribbon on their tails and there must have been 100 kids playing chase the calf! It was so fun to watch but a health and safety nightmare!

Back at Kathy’s we met Ludden the dog and had some dinner at 10.30pm and sat chatting with Howard about the park and with his lifetime of experience of living here and exploring the park and Kathy’s knowledge of working in the Visitor Information Centre we are definitely in the right place to get advice about our visit to the park.

Below is an approximate route we have taken so far and where we are going.